


Cadence

by Hunting In The East Lands (easternCriminal)



Series: Reprise Verse [2]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda, In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Reincarnation fic, really rambley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 07:54:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7214047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/easternCriminal/pseuds/Hunting%20In%20The%20East%20Lands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A fillery piece. Eliza passes, and a younger Vanessa ponders on meeting a boy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cadence

**Author's Note:**

> More of this. Before the evens of In The Heights

She lives so far past him, that she finds herself… forgetting. She never forgets his face, she has pictures of it everywhere, but it’s the little things that start to disappear. The exact tone his voice had to it, what had those eyes looked like, when they were full of life? Small details of dinner conversations that she had taken for granted became blurrier and blurrier as the years dragged on. And as his competitors did all they could to vanquish him, as if even his ghost would haunt them (if anyone’s could, it would be his).

So she does everything she can, she works night and day, she is Non-stop in ehr works to cherish what she has left, even as her memory begins to fade, and to preserve the memory of him for the future generations. The children help her where they can, but they too grow older, and they have their own families, and she finds herself clinging to the last whispered words he had spoken to her.

But through this all… she finds herself in a way. She grows and expands to fill some of the space he left. Her back straightens more, and though she is still gentle Eliza, she also walks with an air of confidence. She is eliza, but she is also Hamilton, and she bears that name with pride. She makes it her own.

And then, one fall evening, she sits down, closes her eyes, and they do not open again.

oOo

There is a strange realization of meeting someone you’ve known your entire life. Vanessa had always known Usnavi - she had always seen him around the street, playing with the fire hydrants in the summer with Benny - but it wasn’t until her Sophomore year that she actually held a conversation with him. 

He was all bright red cheeks and stuttered words as he tried to fix up the coffee she had requested, and spilled his own all over the floor in the process. She laughed and grabbed the rag and insisted on helping him clean up the mess. He was nice, he was polite, he didn’t eye her like she was a meal the way the other boys did, instead there was quiet admiration and awe everytime he looked at her.

In that moment she knew, in her heart, in her mind, the words playing over and over again ‘that boys’ mine.’ 

Daniela commented once that apparently Vanessa held herself with more confidence than anyone she had ever known at her age. Vanessa had to stop herself from saying something along the lines of ‘I’ve had a long time get to this point’. An odd thing to say. An odd thing for a sixteen year old think. 

Vanessa started to go to the Bodega every morning, or at least every morning she could spare. Usnavi was almost always there. Their hands brushed, their eyes would meet, and every conversation filled Vanessa with feeling in her chest, like a flower blooming on a rose bush that had been barren for decades. It felt extraordinary and new and age old all at the same time.

And he pushed her away. Not roughly or anything, softly, and it seemed like he never really meant to. But she could see a flash of… guilt? In his eyes. He had never done anything to her, and on the surface his guilt seemed silly. And late at night, when she would dwell on it, she would gain the feeling that his guilt was silly, because whatever it was he felt it for was a matter that had been resolved a long time ago.

Maybe he sprayed her with water or something when they were younger and she didn’t remember it. That would make sense.

They clashed in only one aspect - Vanessa wanted, for once in her life, to escape her home, her norm, and go somewhere extraordinary. Usnavi, he seemed to want to find his home and burrow there forever, as though the concept was something he had never experienced before.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! Please tell me your thoughts or own headcanons in the comments!


End file.
